1492 Pictures

Background

1492 Pictures is the production company of director Chris Columbus and was founded in 1994 (with its first film, Nine Months; the following year). It is named after the year the explorer Christopher Columbus landed on the Bahamas, as well as a pun on the former's name.

(July 14, 1995-)

Logo: We start by seeing a thick white line surrounded by red lens flares. As the lens flares disappear, the white line turns right, revealing a huge and detailed compass drawing with the numbers "1492" in it. The camera then zooms out in a box as the compass spins a few times around and disappears while the numbers "1492" remain in the background, which is a landscape of an ocean and clouds. The word "PICTURES" is seen below and in spaced-out letters to fit the width of the box. The waves move in the logo after it is completely formed.

Variants:

Depending on the film, the logo either fades out, cuts to black or cuts to the start of the film.
At the end of The Help, the logo is still.
There is a television version of the logo where "TELEVISION" replaces "PICTURES". The box also has a green tint to it.

Technique: Impressive CGI animation by R/Greenberg Associates and Imaginary Forces.

Music/Sounds: A very dramatic and heroic orchestral fanfare, composed by Hans Zimmer. Sometimes, it's the opening theme of the movie. None for the still or TV versions.

Music/Sounds Variant: On I Kill Giants, the full logo is silent.

Availability: Common.

Seen on Nine Months (debut), Rent, Christmas with the Kranks, Jingle All the Way, Pixels, Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Night at the Museum and its two sequels; among others (sometimes not until the end).
This doesn't appear on Stepmom, Bicentennial Man, the first three Harry Potter films, Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and The Christmas Chronicles saga, however.
The TV version was seen on the short-lived reality series 3.